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Russia Tours – Moscow Off the Beaten Path

Ideas for Russia Tours -- Sandunovskiye Baths

14 Neglinniy per., Moscow, Russia
Phone: 095/925-4631 or 095/928-4633

The Sandunovskiye Baths, in the city's northern winding streets, is Moscow 's most famous bathhouse. The fading but grand 19th-century baths are a mixture of sauna and social club, with sexes strictly segregated. For hours you can move between steam rooms and pools, interspersed with massages and twig whippings.

Travellers to Russia have for centuries commented on the particular (or in many people's eyes, peculiar) traditions of the banya (bathhouse), regularly enjoyed by numerous Muscovites at Sandunovskiye. The banya's main element is the parilka (steam room), which can get so hot it makes the Finnish look like sauna-wusses in comparison.

The first stage is to strip down in the changing room, wish 'Lyokogo para'(something of the order of 'May your steam be easy') to your mates, then head into a dry sauna. After that it's into the parilka where, after a good steam, someone will inevitably stand up, grab a tied bundle of venik (birch branches) and, well, beat themselves or each other with it.

Next you run out and plunge into an ice-cold pool ( basseyn ). With your eyelids now draped back over your skull, you stagger back into the changing room to hear your mates say 'S lyogkim parom' ('Hope your steam was easy!'). Then you drape yourself in sheets and discuss world issues before repeating the process five to 10 times over a two-hour period.

 

Ideas for Russia Tours -- VDNKh

VDKh Metro Station, Moscow, Russia

The vast propaganda park known universally as VDNKh (USSR Economic Achievements Exhibition), in the northeast of the city, was an early casualty when those in power finally admitted that the Soviet economy was a disaster. Funds were cut off in 1990 and it remains a frightening and decaying monument to Soviet dogma. Avenues stretch into eternity beside grandiose pavilions, glorifying every aspect of socialist construction, and fountains embellished with lurid gold socialist realist statues. It's a bit of an embarrassment these days, so the exhibits are gradually being replaced with private advertising displays.

 

 

Ideas for Russia Tours -- Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre

3 Kamergersky per., Moscow, Russia
Phone: 095/229-8760

The Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre, in the inner north, gave the world Chekhov, revolutionised Russian drama and heavily influenced Western theatre. Founded by actor-director Konstantin Stanislavsky, the Art Theatre adopted a realist approach and stressed the importance of team-work by the cast, believing every player had something to contribute. There is also a Stanislavsky museum in the mansion where he lived.

 

 

Ideas for Russia Tours -- Moscow State University

Vorob'evy Gory, Moscow, Russia

Metro: Yniversitet

Some say that Stalin's attempt to build Russian skyscrapers, which took shape in the Seven Sisters buildings of Moscow, was an architectural mistake. Yet looking at the Moscow State University building, the biggest of the Seven Sisters, standing atop the Vorob'evy Hills, it seems that this is exactly what Moscow should look like. The huge 33 story building houses several faculties, lecture halls, a pool, the rectorate of the university, graduate student dorms, staff apartments, a museum, and everything and anything from a scientific laboratory to a post office and a hair salon. There have always been rumours about this building, which was build by convicts. It is said that there are nuclear weapns hidden in the roof, there are secret passageways that have exits through university fountains, and that there are bunkers large enough to hold all of the university's 40, 000 some students. To get in, you have to ask for a guest pass at the entrance. The guards may deny anyone the right to enter. If they do not let you in, the grounds are just asinteresting to explore. If you walk around the building, you will eventually reach the smotrovaya ploshadka and university gardens. It's a great place to relax and look at Moscow from the hilltop.

 

Ideas for Russia Tours -- Donskoy Monestary
1 Donskaya Pl., Moscow, Russia
Phone: 095/952-1646

The 16th-century Donskoy Monastery is a fascinating memorial to Russian architecture and art. From 1934 to 1992, a branch of the Shchusev Architecture Museum, keeping architectural details of churches, monasteries, and public buildings destroyed under the Soviets, was located -- more or less secretly -- inside its walls. Today the monastery is once again functioning as a religious institution, and the museum is slowly removing its exhibits from inside the churches. But the bits and pieces of demolished churches and monuments remain, forming a graveyard of destroyed architecture from Russia 's past. COST: Free. Daily 10-4. Metro: Shabolovskaya.

The monastery is situated in a secluded, wooded area in the southwest section of Moscow. You can reach it by taking the metro to the Shabolovskaya station. When you exit the metro, turn right and walk one block to Donskaya ulitsa. Turn right again and follow the street until you see the copper-topped domes of the monastery's churches above the trees to your left. Follow the path along the redbrick fortification wall until you reach the main entrance on the other side.

The monastery grounds are surrounded by a high defensive wall with 12 towers. Founded in the late 16th century, it was the last of the defense fortifications to be built around Moscow. It is situated on the site where, in 1591, the Russian army stood waiting for an impending attack from Tatar troops grouped on the opposite side of the river. According to legend, the Russians awoke one morning to find the Tatars gone. Their sudden retreat was considered a miracle, and regent Boris Godunov ordered a monastery built to commemorate the miraculous victory. Of course, it didn't happen quite like that, but historians confirm that the Tatars did retreat after only minor skirmishes, which is difficult to explain. Never again would they come so close to Moscow. The victory was attributed to the icon of the Virgin of the Don that Prince Dimitry Donskoy had supposedly carried previously, during his campaign in 1380 (in which the Russians won their first decisive victory against the Tatars). The monastery was named in honor of the wonder-working icon.

When you enter through the western gates, an icon of the Mother of the Don looks down on you from above the entrance to the imposing New Cathedral. The brick cathedral was built in the late 17th century by Peter the Great's half-sister, Sophia. It has been under restoration for decades; services are held in the gallery surrounding the church, where the architectural exhibits were once housed. The smaller, Old Cathedral stands to the right of the New Cathedral. The attractive red church with white trim was built in 1591-93, during the reign of Boris Godunov. It is open for services.

One of the most fascinating sections of the monastery is its graveyard, where you will find many fine examples of memorial art. After the plague swept through Moscow in 1771, Catherine the Great forbade any more burials in the city center. The Donskoy Monastery, at that time on the city's outskirts, became a fashionable burial place for the well-to-do. The small Church of the Archangel built against the fortification wall on the far right was the private chapel and crypt of the prominent Golitsyn family (original owners of the Arkangelskoye estate). Many leading intellectuals, politicians, and aristocrats were buried here in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.